Dedicated to Educational Outreach

Foundation . . . In Trouble The foundation to the Garner home was poured in 1920-21. Fast forward to 2008....while some facts were known about the foundation, such as there was little to no steel in the foundation, the extent of the foundation trouble was all under ground. One of the first details completed was soil and foundation testing. This was done in 2008 and below are photos of a core sample being bored out of the foundation stem wall (top right and left). The bottom photo show a variety of foundation and soil cores ready for shipment to the lab. Tests results indicated no steel in the foundation, footer thickness varied between 3" to 18", and soil expansion issues. The soil is expansive and when paired with the long periods of drought found in the Uvalde County area, testing indicated soil shifts of 3" - 6" is not uncommon. Testing also revealed that the building was less than one inch out of level, thus there was no need to lift or level the building. Foundation & Soil Testing Foundation Exposed Once the excavation began for foundation work the extent and longevity of the foundation difficulties became much more apparent. In the photo below, the old cracks (OC) in the mortar of the exterior wall are clearly visible. In the 1960-70's exterior tuck pointing (TP) was done however this was only a cosmetic patch and did not cure the problem. The foot thick stem wall shows a major crack that is also visible from the basement crawl space.  Foundation movement and cracking must have started soon after the home was completed as evidenced by the gussets added below the footers. These gusset additions which were never discovered until excavation started, were placed at different points around the foundation. Much different than the stem walls, these concrete gusset additions were steel reinforced but never attached to the stem wall. As a result they had little affect on the shifting and cracking foundation. Anatomy of the Stem Wall